someone. Never feeling as though their soul was whole. The fear that I was going to be one of those shifters lived inside me, but it eased a little when I heard that Kace and Zeke found their mates only a day apart from each other. Their luck gave me hope that I might be as blessed.
When I got back into town late last night, I’d headed over to Kace’s place to check in with my alpha. I’d been about to walk down the sidewalk leading to his house when I heard female moans and quickly realized I should wait until morning for my visit. Kace has always had an open-door policy, twenty-four-seven, but now that his mate was in his life, that rule was bound to change since they’d need some privacy.
My tiger had been agitated as I’d turned on my heel and headed to my house instead. Even though I was finally home and in my own bed, he hadn’t settled during the night. If anything, he’d been more wound up after the few hours of sleep I’d managed to get. After showering and yanking on some clothes, my plan was to drop in to update Kace—mostly because I wanted to meet his mate and give them my support—before letting my tiger out for a run. With everything that had been going on with my dad, I hadn’t had the opportunity when I’d been in New York. I figured my beast was antsy because he’d been cooped up for too long. Anxious to give him what he needed, I jogged up Kace’s steps and knocked on his door.
I waited until he called out for me to enter, and then I pushed open the door to step into his house. Kace had a pretty blonde tucked into his side, and his possessive hold made me grin. Since I was looking at his mate, that earned me a growl from my alpha. I pressed my lips together, dropped my gaze to the floor, and tilted my head to expose my neck in a gesture of submission.
“Welcome home, Tane,” Kace finally grunted. “Glad you’re back.”
My lips curved up in a smirk as I lifted my head again, but I didn’t aim it in Larissa’s direction. I didn’t mind doing shit to get a rise out of my alpha, but I wasn’t going to piss all over his mating bond to do it. “I guess what they say about the power of the mating in the beginning is true.”
My chuckle was a little bit forced because I wanted what he’d found. Larissa shouldn’t have caught on to what I was feeling, but when Kace glanced down at her, she wiggled her eyebrows with a conspiratorial smile. He chuckled and shrugged, before turning back to me.
“Tane, this is my mate, Larissa,” Kace introduced us. “Larissa, Tane, my third.”
“I’m happy for you both,” I replied. The sexual tension between the two mates was so damn thick that I swore I could smell it. “I’ll leave you to...whatever I interrupted.” My smirk was more genuine this time, and Kace rolled his eyes.
“Everything good in New York?”
I nodded and filled him in on shit he already knew, just in case his mate hadn’t been looped in yet. “Yeah, my dad fell and broke his hip. He shattered it so badly, they needed to do surgery to reset it immediately, which was probably for the best anyway. If his shifter healing had already kicked in, the bone might have healed wrong. Even though my sisters were there, I wanted to be at the hospital. He came through it like a champ.”
“Happy to hear it. Now get the fuck out of here so I can be alone with my mate.” His demand was pretty much what I’d expected once I’d caught a whiff of an unmistakable scent on Larissa, so I laughed and spun around. Striding out of his house, I shut the door behind me and stalked down the steps.
I was heading toward the motorcycle parked in my driveway when I spotted the door to Zeke’s house opening. “Hey, man! Glad to see you’re back,” he called.
I changed direction and jogged across the street to greet my friend. “It’s damn good to be back.”
“C’mon, you weren’t gone that long,” Zeke chuckled.
“Long enough for everything to change around here,” I pointed out with a grin as I slapped him on the back. “When I left, all three of us were unattached, and now you and Kace have mates.”